Monkey's Banana Peel Award

The award given to the offensive and defensive players who best slip up the opposition.

By all rights I ought to change this award for this one week and make it the player who slipped up the most. If that were the case it would be Hass offensively and either Trufant or Herndon defensively who each had lousy games to say the least. But that is not the case...so without further ado, this weeks Banana Peel Award goes to:

Offensive, Joe Jurivicius. Now this could have (and maybe should have) gone to Bobby Engram who simply found ways to get open and make catches all game long. But I am giving it to J.J. because of the way that he slipped up the Jags. On that beautiful diving catch, Jurivicius showed us exactly the kind of hands he has, terrific. On the touchdown, Jurivicius simply slipped up the entire secondary, (ok ok they probably blew their assignments, but I prefer to think that it was Jurivicius route that was so good). Jurivicius may not be the fastest or greatest reciever on this team, but he catches everything thrown his way and knows how to get himself open when it matters most.
Defensive, Gotta give this one to Grant Wistrom, who was simply everything we had hoped he would be when we signed him two years ago. He was a disruptive influence all game, knocking down passes, getting in the QB's face and just generally slipping up the Jags offense.

Comments: Yes we lost, yes this stinks, and yes there were some very stupid blunders that cost us this game; but I am not worried at all yet. Why not? Because it's way too early, and because the Jags are a very good team with a truly superb defense, and because there were several positives that came out of this game. There were several players who had terrific games, including Engram, Jurivicius, Wistrom, Jerramy Stevens, Rocky Bernard, and a couple others. Perhaps most importantly, our defense played well enough to win this game. No it wasn't dominating, especially in the secondary, but we stopped the run, and we got some pressure on the QB. Two BIG things that were lacking last season.
Also, Lofa Tatupu playing Defensive quarterback, calling the plays on the field was a big improvement over the miscommunication problems we had last season. So take heart true believers, In the heat of Jacksonville, playing with a short field most of the game, our defense held the Jags to a lot of field goals where in the past we would have allowed touchdowns. Our offense will rebound, they showed that they can move the ball almost at will, (especially on that second drive) when they don't make stupid mistakes. Next week we face the Falcons at home and I am expecting a "W".